Daily Archives: December 20, 2008

It was not long ago when I had posted two posts on Advertisments of today and yesteryears…and not only did I had fun drafting those, but the most wonderful thing that happened was the sharing of nostalgic moments by you guys in the comment section.
So here I am with another post on Mad Ads and this post is dedicated to you guys! Enjoy! 🙂

There was that time before Goldspot and Mirinda took over, when Rasna was the favorite drink that every household refridgerator used to store. The little cute gal with a short umbrella haircut was adored by one and all….some parents saw a daughter in her, some little gals saw a sister in her, and you know the little guys! 😉 I used to wonder if I could have a friend like her who would be sitting next to me in my class at school. I was of the opinion that she was intelligent and sweet cos she drank Rasna everyday but my mom was not ready to allow me become sweet or intelligent that way! May be she didn’t believe in short cuts! 😉 Later on as I grew, I noticed that she was still that young…may be Rasna effect there too…and when she used to say, “I love you Rasna” – I wanted to be rechristened as Rasna…sigh…this and many more… 😀

Talking about gals (now you may say, “Ah! Sree…what else do you talk about?” :P), the Nirma washing powder and Lyril soap ads were classic….Whether the washing powder did its job well or not, the little gal in white frock did real well when she played with our minds with one about-turn holding on to her frock. Lyril ads – especially the part where the lady is under the waterfall (ya she was under it all time) – were forbidden ones at home. Mom had this feeling that it was meant for adults only…my dad and his brother (who stayed with us then) were instructed to ‘send kids to study’ when such ads came on TV…So worse was the situation that even during summer holidays, my stupid uncle used to shout “Go and study” with his eyes fixated at the Lyril models! Disadvantages of being a kiddo at the wrong time, I guess!

The Lijjat pappad ad with the Bunny was cute…being not much advanced in animations then, uncles turned out in bunny costumes to make us smile and then buy those pappads…no doubt that the pappads made by the thousands of women across the country (its a small scale industry completely managed by women which runs Lijjat) were popular, but for us viewers it were these Bunny people who stole the show as they sold the chow! 😀

In the 90s, more kids with lovely expressions and chubby faces started to be hunted down for commercial advertisements…with mainly the edible oils using them….I remember an Ad (‘Sunlife’ I guess) where a larger than life poori rolls behind the running kid early in the morning till he ends up in the cosy and safe arms of his mummy…Then there was this Dhara cooking Oil Ad where a cute kid leaves home (I think cos his favorite Jalebi wasn’t prepared) and is found waiting at the railway station…cute ones…

The cool drink ads have come down to a mockery these days with Akshay Kumar doing monkey tricks in the name of stunts. Creative ones using Sprite (Cheetah bhi peeta hey) have stopped, but the Limca one with Meghana Reddy seems to be a freshly sooper one…But the classic one still remains the Sachin Tendulkar piece, where the mantra is “Sachin Ala Re” and he hits the ball with a stump!! Awesome! 🙂

Some Ads are known for their brilliant creativity….The Saint Gobain ads for instance, are a class….The Bingo ads have a tinge of craziness (with a name like Bingo, what do you expect? ;)) along with being creative. And the MasterCard ads are simple priceless…the currently running one where the friends fight in flashback on “who will pay?”, still continue to fight but on “I will pay”!! Legendary! 😀

There were Ads with an attitude…the Onida ads with the devil was a classic example…”Neighbours envy, Owners pride” was a classic one-liner – which has been spoofed and re-spoofed several times to the craziest of situations! 😉 The Hrithik and Isha ad comes under this kind too….the dance they do together for chocolate coated biscuits, what can I say?
Then there were ads with the purpose…apart from the Nirodh, condom, HIV/AIDS and i-Pill (‘Prevention is better than Abortion’) ads, there were consumer awareness ads on Milk and Eggs…The ‘Sunday hoya Monday, roz khao Anda” (Be it Sunday or Monday, eat an egg daily) was like a mantra along with the “Doodh Doodh Doodh, Piyo glass full doodh” (Doodh = Milk, Piyo = Drink) tantra!
Nowadays its more of dental care with Orbit Chewing Gum Ads…Crazy I would say…they ask us humans to buy that showing an experiment on a dumb smiling “Single” cow! I have tried it a few times, white or not but I feel that I smile like a cow now! 😉
There are the stupid ads too…like the one running currently on Rajnigandha tobbaco…its such a gandha (pathetic) ad! 😛 The one-liner they use – “Mooh mein Rajnigandha, kadmon mein duniya” (With Rajnigandha in mouth, the whole world is beneath the feet) – simply sucks…the writer should be hanged till contamination! 😛

I was also reminded about the Amruthanjan ads…where the suffering person says “Its gone” in their mother tongue…about 10 different people saying “its gone” “gaya” “hoythu” et al. I was and I am still amazed by the immediate healing of headache on using that product…In a 10 seconds Ad slot, so many were cured…Nice! 😀

I have always loved the Britannia Ads…especially the “Ting Ting Tidding” signature tune that comes with the Ad. The tune can be used for various reasons…I have this utterly butterly crazy friend with whom I chat on the communicator and she uses this tune to the max…reasons could be various though…”Ting Ting Tidding” from her could mean – Time for a break; Change the topic; You are such a bore, get lost; I am happy; et al. – depending on the context and timing!

This makes me think whether it is we who make the Ads or is it the Ads that make us! Whatever it is, as the time passes these Ads act as fuel to our nostalgic thoughts! 😀

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Me! Myself! Moi!

Though unaware, I'm usually up to something. I'm an ex-introvert who talks more than he write and writes more than he's capable of. I try to make light of everything, for I believe that I'm stuck in a dark tunnel.
All said and done, I named this blog space as 'All in the Mind...', for the very lack of it.